What is search engine marketing?

Search engine marketing (or SEM) is the technique of prominently placing your website within the search results when a prospective customer is looking online for a product or service that you offer.

Search engines have become vital tools for anyone using the Internet who may want to find a suitable website. It's because of this that search engine marketing has become the fastest growing sector of marketing spend over recent years as more and more companies develop an online presence and come to realise the benefits of this form of marketing to generate new business.

Quite simply, search engine marketing can be a highly cost-effective technique because it places your company in front of potential customers as a time when they are actively searching for what you offer. This 'pull' effect means that your business can already be communicating with good business leads who have found you, rather than with other forms of 'push' marketing (such as press adverts, radio adverts or direct mail) where you may be communicating with people who are not interested in your business at this time.

This means that every dollar spent on search engine marketing can be more effective than other forms of advertising. Yet SEM depends on a number of core factors to work well - firstly, to identify the best keywords to target and secondly, to achieve good visibility for these terms on the search engines that will be used by your target market. In the latter case, Google clearly dominates the search market and a good ranking here can be worth more than all the other prominent search engines combined.

With the targeting of search terms, you need to determine which words may be searched for by your potential customers and then for which of these terms can you achieve high rankings cost effectively, based on your current website and budget. Because search engine marketing is highly measurable, you have the opportunity to test and fine tune your campaign to get the best results.

Choose the best search engine marketing options for your business

Search engine marketing comprises 2 main techniques - search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Find out more about these by following the links here or from the menu to the right.

In this section we consider the benefits of search engine marketing, the best solutions for your business and the advantages of using SEO or PPC. We have also included a section of frequently asked questions and a glossary of terms relevant to this sector of marketing.

If you'd like to speak to us directly about using search engine marketing for your website, please contact us now or request a FREE site assessment to receive a 'no obligation' review of your website.